


these scars are just a trace

by CallicoKitten



Series: my heart, your hands [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: Angst, Implied Torture, Kid Fic, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-31
Updated: 2012-09-03
Packaged: 2017-11-06 11:26:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/418358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallicoKitten/pseuds/CallicoKitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He's gone Ally, and I can't do anything about it, okay?"</p><p>Tony wakes up one morning and Loki's gone, he's used to it, they all are; Loki comes and goes as he pleases. But this time he doesn't come back and then all hell breaks loose and he's got way more to worry about then his missing boyfriend.</p><p>Sequel to my heart, your hands. </p><p>(Formerly Left to drown, now has a more relevant title!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a vague idea of where this is going and it'll most likely be a lot longer then My Heart :)
> 
> This is a short prologue and the title is pretty irrelevant (much like the first story) I was just listening to Bright Eyes and it sounded pretty. 
> 
> Thanks so much for all of feedback, I only hope this fic lives up to the hype!

He had been on Midgard for almost two years before he heard that voice that chilled him to the very core in his head again.

_We are coming Laufeyson, have you forgotten us already?_

Loki thought he knew cold before he met Thanos; he was a frost giant, after all, he was always cold. But Thanos tore him limb from limb and left him trembling from cold and fear and pain and then put him back together again in different ways only to unmake him all over again. 

By the end he would have done anything Thanos asked.

And he did.

_Remember what you promised us, Laufeyson. We’re coming to claim it._

The infinity gauntlet, the cosmic cube, both relics in Odin’s throne room; that was what they asked of him. It had been laughable but Loki had agreed just to make them _stop_. He would take Midgard. That broken, doomed planet. He didn’t want it, he never wanted it. But Thanos said he did, so he did.

_You think you know pain?_

He had wanted to run. The minute he landed on Earth. He had wanted to run and never look back. But Thanos was in his head, in his veins and _ohmygodifhedidn’t_. So he played his part, danced to Thanos’ tune and when Banner’s green alter-ego smashed him so thoroughly he was jerked loose from Thanos’ controls.

He’d wanted to fall to his knees and thank him but of course, he couldn’t, so he didn’t. And no one noticed. No one noticed he had changed, not even Thor. But then Stark had come swaggering in to his cage, all ego and walls and fronts and once he’d stopped lording it over him and showing off his little collar that repressed Loki’s magic he’d paused. “Your eyes are green.”

Loki had rolled his eyes, “If _you’re_ the best mind on Midgard I’m rather unimpressed.”

And Stark had looked faintly amused. “Last time I saw you your eyes were most definitely blue.” And he’d known. Loki knew he knew and for a moment they’d stared at each other for a few minutes and then Loki had made some remark about Tony gazing lovingly in to his eyes and Tony had smirked and that was that.

He’d escaped from Asgard fairly easily and he’d had _fun_ playing with Doom and his little villain friends and fighting the Avengers. And then came the voice.

_Don’t think we’ve forgotten about you little God. Oh no, we’re coming for you first._

Loki had jerked awake trembling and whimpering and cold and _alone_ so he had gone to one person he knew would protect him no matter what. But the mansion had been deserted, his brother wasn’t there, Loki had been about to leave when a child had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and demanded to know who he was and why he was in _her_ mansion. 

Her hair was dark and messy and though her eyes were huge and blue he recognised her as Stark’s immediately. She had been dressed in baggy pyjamas and though her voice had been steady she was trembling slightly. She reminded him of Hel and it tugged at his heart and he’d smiled and knew he couldn’t leave until someone came back.

He hadn’t meant to bond so strongly with Alaya but looking back he doesn’t know how he thought he’d stay away. 

He’s watching her sleep now, she’s getting so big. 

Its 4am, the mansion is sleeping and Loki’s awake, his head is full of Thanos’ whispering and it’s all he can do not to fall apart. He shuts Ally’s door as quietly as possible and heads down to the labs. Banner’s still up and when Loki enters he frowns at him, “Something wrong, Loki?”

Loki likes Bruce. He’s calm and clever and he’ll sit and teach Loki about anything he wants to know about (Tony usually gets bored half way through and they resort to making the other Avengers lives a living hell instead) 

And he knows how it feels to be a monster.

Loki’s hand curls unconsciously across his stomach. Yes, there’s something wrong. There’s something very, _very_ wrong and it’s not only Thanos’ whispers. He’s not going to tell Bruce about that though, it’s not that he doesn’t think the scientist would believe him, it’s that has no idea where to begin. 

“Looking for Tony,” he murmurs.

Bruce studies at him for a few moments before gesturing to the workshop behind his lab. As Loki passes Bruce catches his arm and Loki flinches involuntarily, “You know you can talk to me right, Loki?” he sounds concerned, more concerned than Loki can ever remember anyone _ever_ using towards him.

Loki nods and smiles weakly but it feels more like a grimace.

_We’re going to destroy everything you love, little God. But then what can a monster like you know of love?_

Tony’s asleep; slumped over his desk and snoring loudly.

Loki wants to cry. 

_We are coming, little God._

There’s a flash of blinding pain that has Loki doubled over and biting his tongue so hard he tastes the tangy sharpness of blood. 

He reaches out and brushes Tony’s hair back tenderly and Tony grunts and mumbles something about apple juice and Loki chuckles despite it all.

It’s better like this. This way he doesn’t need say goodbye. One day he’ll come back, after Thanos is gone and they’re all safe and it’ll all be okay (or so he hopes).

He touches Tony’s cheek one last time and disappears.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's not coping with Loki's disappearance well and it's effecting everyone around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part was pretty hastily written (sorry!) but I don't want to leave you hanging xD
> 
> The action starts next chapter :) this one pretty much catches us up with Tony.
> 
> Thank you guys so so so much for all the feedback and comments, you're awesome. :')
> 
> Hope this part isn't too bad for you guys.
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I know Tony's parents died together in canon but I changed it for this a little bit.

Ally’s staring at him.

Well, she’s not staring, she’s _glaring_ and for a six year old she’s pretty damn intimidating. Now, Tony knows that without his expensive suit and flashy cars and Iron Man costume he’s not that intimidating, he tries to be but right now, wearing baggy pyjama pants and a faded Iron Maiden t-shirt he’s about as intimidating as a mildly annoyed kitten. Ally, though, she’s intimidating, she has this way of glaring at you that makes your skin crawl (it reminds Tony uncomfortably of his father) even in her overalls and pigtails (which Thor tied, Tony didn’t want to ask but Thor as usual over shared and confided that for a while he wore his hair in pigtails which gave Tony a few odd images)

He sighs and looks back at her over his plate of waffles. “Ally, what?”

She hasn’t spoken to him since Loki left a month ago. Goddamn Norse Gods. He left without so much as a goodbye. It wasn’t that unusual for Tony to wake up and find the trickster had left at some point during the night but Loki always came back after a few days. _Always_.

Tony’s pissed. Mostly at himself for trusting Loki as much as he did. He doesn’t want to believe that Loki’s gone for good but it’s getting harder and harder not to imagine that this wasn’t some elaborate scheme of the God’s just to mess with them all. And it _has_ messed with them all. Tony’s falling apart (though he’ll never admit to that), Ally’s closing herself up again, Clint’s elated, Bruce is concerned and Natasha and Steve are worried. Loki knows so much about them now. About their weaknesses, about their strategies, about _everything._

Oddly, Thor’s coping the best. He misses Loki as much as Tony does but unlike Tony he has no problem believing that Loki will come back. “You must remember, Tony Stark, that to us a month is nothing.”

Tony gets that. Loki and Thor are immortal (to an extent) to them a human lifetime is nothing.   
“And it is hard to love someone mortal, Tony.” Thor had said and it had made Tony wriggle uncomfortably because he’s never said it to Loki and Loki’s never said it back but he was starting to think that maybe he did... _you know_. 

But as time’s gone on even Thor’s started to get worried, he had even gone to Asgard to ask Heimdel if he could find Loki (from what Tony understands the guy is like some sort of magical celestial telescope) Heimdel couldn’t and Thor returned despondently and sulked in the sparring room for a few days.

Tony’s just trying to move on. It shouldn’t be that hard, Loki was only with them three months, but Tony’s beginning to wonder how he coped without him before. With Loki’s help Tony managed to build an arc reactor that would power itself for over a hundred years (maybe Loki only wanted to know how they were built so he and Doom or someone could use it).

Ally’s still staring and Tony’s getting sick of it luckily Pepper chooses that moment to arrive to take Ally to school. After the kidnapping scare Tony had wanted to have her home schooled but both Ally and Loki had told him that was _stupid_ , instead he’d transferred her to the most protected school in New York, a school which Tony knew had hired several of Xavier’s former students. Tony still worries though.

“You have a press conference at two,” Pepper reminds him as Ally hurries upstairs to get her school bag.

Tony scowls in to his waffles, “Cancel it.”

Pepper looks at him sympathetically, “Tony-”

“I don’t care, Pep. Cancel it. I’m not going.”

Ally bursts back into the room and Pepper sighs, “We’ll talk later, Tony. Okay?”

“Not okay.” Tony doesn’t _want_ to talk. 

When they leave Tony goes down to his workshop for a bit but nothing he does goes well so he gives up. Bruce is off in India or somewhere for the month, Clint is off on a solo op (thank God because his glee at Loki’s disappearance made Tony want to snap his neck) and he really doesn’t feel like listen to Cap’s ‘maybe it’s for the best’ tone of voice right now (or being beaten six different shades of black by Natasha) so he decides to go bother Thor but he’s intercepted by Agent Hill (who had apparently acquired a key a some point).

“Director Fury wants to see you, Stark. _Now._ ” She says briskly. 

Tony sighs dramatically, “ _Why?_ ” He knows why. He’s not only let a super villain into their inner most sanctum he’s let said super villain disappear. Fury has a right to be a little pissed but Tony doesn’t care, it’s not like he hasn’t considered _everything_ Fury is about to say to him, it’s not like he doesn’t feel awful and scared and angry. He follows Hill anyway, lets her fly him up to Fury’s little flying base, stands there as Fury berates him, screams at him. All he can think is; _fuck you, Nick._

It’s when Fury brings Ally in to it that Tony really loses it. 

“And on top of that Stark you let that villain interact with you _daughter_. Now, I don’t know what in the _hell_ you were thinking with that, I mean what kind of father would ever let-”

“ _Fuck you,_ Nick.” He says it quietly but Fury hears and the look on his face is pretty priceless. 

“ _Excuse_ me?” Fury’s hand is twitching, his face livid. He hears Hill’s sharp intake of breath somewhere behind him. This is probably a pretty stupid thing to do but Tony’s not sure he cares, like _at all_. He’s tired of this. He’s tired of everyone assuming Loki was only manipulating him (tired of believing it himself). 

“You heard me, Nick.” He spins on his heel and stalks out. Hill doesn’t follow him so he calls Happy to pick him up. He hasn’t seen him in a while, he hasn’t seen much of anyone outside of the other Avengers and he knows he’s being even more of dick then usual but he can’t help but glare when Happy asks how he’s been doing. 

When he gets back to the mansion all he really wants to do is go down to the lab or the workshop and blow some shit up (or at least set something on fire) but when he gets back Pepper is waiting for him. Pepper has her ‘we-need-to-talk’ face; he hasn’t seen it that severely since she broke up with him, it was totally mutual by the way. Pepper deserved happiness and Tony couldn’t give it to her (maybe that’s why Loki left?)

“Pepper, I’m really not in the mood.” He says before she can open her mouth, he stalks past and goes down to his workshop.

She follows him; of course she follows him and overrides JARVIS’ commands because apparently even the computer thinks Tony needs to talk about this. “Tony, you can’t ignore this forever.” She says, crossing her arms.

“I can try.” He turns away, back to the screen.

“No, Tony, not this time,” Pepper crosses the room and Tony tries his best to avoid her eyes. “This whole sulky act was fine before but you have a little girl to think about now, Tony. She’s hurting the same as you and you’re not helping things by throwing a tantrum! She needs you, Tony.”

_She needs you, Tony._

Those words echo around his head and all he could think was, _no, she needs Loki_. She’s always needed Loki. It was Loki that got through to her in the first place, Loki that took her shopping and taught Tony how to read a bedtime story properly and taught Ally how to deal with bullies (Tony just said ‘hit them back.’) and did her hair prettily and whisked her off to fancy places. Tony’s never been _needed_. He can’t even take care of himself.

He doesn’t say this though; instead he sighs and closes his eyes. “What am I meant to do, Pep? She won’t talk to me; she’ll barely even let me _touch_ her anymore. The only thing that can fix this is Loki coming back. And he’s not. I’ve worked that much out, he’s not. He’s probably out there with whoever the fuck he’s working with this month and laughing at us or plotting to destroy us, and you know what Pep? He can. He knows everything about _all_ of us and if he does, it’ll be my fault.”

“Tony, I didn’t-” she begins, her eyes wide. He’s being unfair, he knows that. She’s his best friend, for a long time his only friend. He tries to stop it but he can’t, it’s all spewing over, all the anger and hurt and _fuck,_ he can’t stop it.

“You know what sucks most is that everyone-Cap, Clint, Natasha, Fury, _you,_ \- _knew_ this would happen. You all did, every single one of you and I know, you’re all fucking ecstatic that he’s gone and that we can go back to be the fucking good guys. And that’s great for you but here I am trying to put everything back together again and I don’t know why I’m surprised because this is just what seems to happen; every time things start getting good for me it just blows up in my fucking face!”

“And how am I supposed to make it okay for Ally? _How_ , Pepper? How am I supposed to explain that he just fucking left in the middle of the night for no reason to a _six year old?_ He’s her _everything_. He’s the one she goes to with problems, he’s the one who helps her, who does her hair and buys and clothes and _everything_ he’s the one she _needs_. And now he’s gone, in all likelihood to plot to destroy us! So you tell me Pepper, what am I supposed to say?”

When he looks again at Pepper he realises she’s not looking at him.

Ally’s by the door. Her hair is beginning to escape from her pigtails there’s little specks of paint on her overalls and her tiny fists are balled at her sides. Her mouth is a tight line and she’s glaring at Tony, eyes huge and blue and she’s not Loki’s kid but at that moment all he can see is the way Loki looked at him when they captured him the first time. When he was a half-mad, affection starved creature.

He’s speaking before he can think. “He’s gone Ally,” he shouts, “And I can’t do a thing about, okay?” And then he’s stepping in to his Iron Man suit and he’s half way across the country, heart racing, mouth full of bitterness and regret.

He wonders if this is what it was like for his father, looking at him and seeing his mother. It hits him like freight train: he’s becoming his father. Sullen, morose Howard Stark who hid himself away from the world and loved his work more than his son. He’s doing the same to Ally, pushing her away and what scares him most is that he doesn’t know how to stop. 

He can hear Loki’s voice in his head. 

_Go and apologise immediately, Stark! She’s your daughter, she’s the most important thing in the world to you!_

He closes his eyes. Loki had started talking to Tony about his children before he left and Tony had known what had happened to them from the legends but Loki spoke about their personalities; Hel’s smile, Fenrir’s sense of humour, Jor’s eyes, Sleipnir’s voice, Vali and Narfi’s laughs. It had made Tony realise how quickly things could change. How important Ally was. The thought of her being taken away from him or worse was...well.

His inner Loki laughs. _That’s better Tony, now go and apologise. Honestly, it’s like having two children sometimes!_ (Not that Loki was _that_ much more mature)

His eyes sting with totally-not-tears. “Fuck you, Loki.” He whispers before turning and flying back to the mansion.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We know your secret, little God," he says and Loki's blood runs cold.
> 
> ________________________________________
> 
>  
> 
> “What the fuck,” Tony breathes, it’s all happening too fast for him to process. He turns to Pepper, panic rising like bile in his throat. “Where’s Ally?”
> 
> “Downstairs. With Bruce.”
> 
> “They’re not taking her from me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long, last week was pretty hectic and I didn't want to rush it!
> 
> Anyway, yes, as some of you guessed Loki is indeed pregnant now I gotta say I don't usually like mpreg and I've never written it before but this is Loki so it's not really mpreg xD
> 
> Title change! It's from Hymn for the Missing by Red which my friend played for me in her perfect soundtrack to the fic.
> 
> Also, mwhahahahahaa. heartbreak. Again, not very long but I hate leaving you hanging.
> 
> And yeah, Thanos' characterization is pretty made up. I havent read the comics in aaaages so sorry if he's ooc.
> 
> Thank you so much for all the kudos and comments and I've noticed I randomly changed 'allie' to 'ally' idk, weird.

_It’s dark._

_Dark and cold._

_There’s something screaming..._

_He thinks it might be him._

_He’d run so far and so fast._

_“Not fast enough, Little God,” Thanos purrs._

_He’s in a cell. (He thinks it’s a cell) it’s dark and cold and pitch black but he knows **they’re out there, surrounding him from all angles, biting, scratching, hacking.**_

_Loki struggles against the tearingburningsearing pain, “Please,” he begs. “P-Please don’t.”_

_“You’ll do what we say?”_

_They want to destroy Midgard. They want to destroy anything._

_Loki’s hand curls across his stomach, Ally’s face, Tony’s face, Thor’s face, hell **everyone’s** faces, flash across his mind. “Never.” He spits. _

_Someone laughs, maybe Thanos, maybe someone else. “Strange how you once mocked your brother for succumbing to the affections of a human and yet now you lie before me, a shadow of your former self, willing to disobey me for a mortal. You wanted their destruction a short time ago.”_

_Loki turns away from the voice, from the shame. “I didn’t-” he begins. He didn’t what? He didn’t know then. He didn’t know anything but hurt and fear and rage and all he wanted was for it all to end. “I didn’t...”_

_“You are disgusting, Laufeyson.”_

_Loki shudders. **Monster.**_

_“What do you think your little mortal man thinks of you now? Does he think you a coward running from commitment or a villain run off to plot against him?”_

_Loki doesn’t want to think about that. Tony wouldn’t think that... he tells himself, but there’s another voice that sounds suspiciously like Thanos that hisses **You would.**._

_“No,” Loki whispers._

_Thanos laughs. It’s a low, rumbling sound, like a mountain collapsing. “Do you think he _loved_ you, Laufeyson? Truly? You think someone could love such a monster? A monster who tried to destroy his planet, his friends?”_

_No, Loki thinks._

_“We were the ones who saved you, Loki. We were the ones who took that mad, twisted creature that fell from the sky and moulded it in to a God, in to a conqueror and were you not better that way? Free from empathy, from affection, free to do what you pleased.”_

_“I was never free,” Loki whispers. “I was just your puppet.”_

_Thanos laughs again and this time a hand ghosts across Loki’s own. “We know your secret little God,” he says and Loki’s blood runs cold._

*****

It’s been two months since Loki left and Tony thinks he’s finally getting back in to the swing of things, as it were. Ally is talking more though she glares at him begrudgingly and acts like it’s most awful thing in the world for her (and this makes Tony realise just how terrifying Ally will be as a teenage because if she’s like this at _six_ imagine _sixteen_ )

He’d like to say he’s getting better because he’s a strong person who doesn’t have a heart and it most certainly wasn’t broken by a bratty Norse God with more Daddy issues than Tony, but that would be a lie. The truth is he’s feeling better because of the excessive amount of villainous activity popping up this month. 

It’s really, _really_ weird. It’s like all the super villains got together and planned to swamp them with world domination plans (which, let’s face it, isn’t that farfetched) But what’s weird is that most of their plans don’t involve a direct attack on _anything_ not on them or cities or the four or the x-men, they just seem to be stockpiling weapons, kidnapping people to work for them, stealing shit (expensive shit and tonnes of cash) but there’s no blowing up buildings and they’re all getting suspicious.

Cap’s having serious discussion about it with Bruce and the agents but Tony doesn’t attend, partly because they’re dull and usually involve Cap and Clint arguing and Bruce’s heart rate monitor wailing and partly because Ally’s got two weeks off for Easter. Thor’s been back in Asgard for the last few weeks (they fixed their magic rainbow bridge thing) and he’s off doing princely things.

Tony’s trying not to worry about the whole super villain thing; instead he’s concentrating on finding things to keep Ally amused. He’s given up on museums because he took her to the Natural History Museum in London once and she made three of the professors there cry (and Tony was so damn proud of her he didn’t even apologise).

“I want to go look at cave paintings today,” she announces at breakfast. “Bruce told me he saw some in France that were good, let’s go see them.”

Clint, who’s busying himself trying to eat an entire box of doughnuts, looks at her like she’s just grown another head, “You’re six,” he says. “Shouldn’t you want to go to, like, Disneyland or something?”

Ally rolls her eyes and tosses her dark hair, “I’ve already been to Disneyland _twice_ , it’s boring.”

Sometimes Tony thinks he spoils Ally, then he realises he doesn’t care because she’s his little girl and he’ll give her the world if he asks for it (also it’s adorable and fabulous when she flaunts her intelligence). “Ally, honey, you’ve got to remember some people are of lower intellect and don’t understand our world.” He says, dodging the doughnut Clint throws his way.

“So can we go see the caves or not, daddy?”

Tony can think of better ways to spend his day but Ally has to spend most of her time in school and Tony remembers how _that_ feels. “Sure, Ally. We’ll go see your caves. Go get ready.”

She bounces out of the room and Clint mutters, “What’s so interesting about scratches on a cave wall anyway.”

Tony has no idea where any of these caves are so he ropes Pepper in (she studied archaeology as a minor years ago when super heroes didn’t exist and Tony’s life was relatively straight forward) and they commandeer one of SHIELD’s jets. They left New York at 11 so they arrive in France at 5pm and most of the cave things are just about to shut but Tony is Tony motherfucking Stark so he buys a few right then and there (he’ll give them back later).Cave paintings are actually pretty boring (don’t tell Clint) and Tony can’t help but be reminded of Thor’s doodles (hell, maybe Thor popped to Earth millions of years ago and got bored. He totally doesn’t spend the next few hours trying to work out if any of the scrawls might mean “THOR WAS HERE”)

After the caves they figure since they’re in France they may as well pop to Paris and have dinner (Tony wants to land on the Arc de Triomphe, Pepper says no) They eat, book a hotel and shop (well, Pepper and Ally shop while Tony wishes he was anywhere but here) and they crawl in to their beds a lot poorer (not that money is an issue) and exhausted and for once Ally goes to sleep without a fuss.

Tony wakes up to the sound of his phone buzzing. 

Its midday and Ally and Pepper are watching TV in the other room. He rolls over and groans when he sees the caller ID. “What now, Cap? Falling apart without me already?”

There’s a pause and then Steve says, “Tony, we need you back here _now_.” The line goes dead.

Usually Tony would ignore a call like that and waltz back to New York whenever he damn well pleased but he’d never heard Steve sound so _empty_. He stands up, “Girls, we gotta head back to New York. Now.”

*****

“That can’t be right. Play it again.”

“Tony, you’ve seen the footage forty times. It’s him.” Steve says, there’s a sympathetic edge to his voice but even he can’t hide his anger, his hurt. 

Tony’s workshop is ruined, so is Bruce’s lab. All of Tony’s suits are gone along with Cap’s shield, Clint’s arrows and most of their jets and equipment. JARVIS is completely scrambled and there’s only one person currently not imprisoned that would know how to do that. The footage is barely a second long but it’s undeniable. Loki swaggers down the corridor, turning to wink at the camera before the picture flickers to black.

Steve is silently fuming, Bruce is down in the lab trying to salvage his research, the agents are off at SHEILD head quarters and Thor’s gone off in a rage after breaking the few things Loki had left untouched. 

“Why would he do this?” Tony wonders aloud, pausing the footage on Loki’s devious wink. He’s trying desperately to search the God’s face for some hint of possession, some hint that this isn’t what he wants, but he doesn’t find any.

Steve sighs heavily and looks away, rubbing the back of his neck. “Maybe he planned this from the start, Tony.”

Tony closes his eyes. He doesn’t want to believe it but the evidence is staring him right in the face, it’s not like he can avoid it anymore. The only thing surprising right now is that Tony isn’t even angry, he just feels numb. “What do we do about this?” 

Steve shakes his head. “What can we do? It’s not like we have the faintest idea where he’s hiding. He’s never said anything to you, has he?” 

“Nope. Nothing.”

Steve swallows and nods. “Look, Tony, I’m sorry about all this.” He says, patting Tony awkwardly on the shoulder.

Tony kind of wants to break but he doesn’t, he’s done this his whole life, when his mom died, when his dad died, when Obi had him kidnapped... He grins reassuringly, “Hey, don’t be, I’m fine. It could be worse right? Now let’s get to rebuilding this place. We’ve done it before.”

Steve smiles looking slightly relieved and Tony’s about to leave when Pepper bursts in to the room. 

“Tony, you need to see this,” she says, switching the screen on to the news channel. 

“And the world today was shocked by photos apparently showing billionaire Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man, in the company of the war criminal, Loki, who over the past two years has been directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians. Perhaps more troubling are the images of Mr Stark’s six year old daughter, Alaya and other members of the group known as the Avengers associating with the criminal,” 

All Tony can think is _well, **shit**_.

“What the hell?” Steve steps forward, “Aren’t SHIELD supposed to prevent things like this happening?”

“It gets worse,” Pepper says, hand pressed to her mouth.

“Alaya Stark’s mother, Mollie Grayson, told us earlier today of her disgust regarding the images.” The image cut to an interview with Mollie looking a hell of a lot smarter and well kept then when Tony had last seen her. She was wearing a suit and dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. Her husband (they’d captioned him as Ally’s _step father_ and that makes Tony’s blood boil). 

“Mollie lost custody of her daughter a little over a year ago for allegedly abusing the little girl; claims which she says were completely fabricated.”

“Ally was a very active child,” Mollie says tearfully, “She was clumsy, if I had known how much trouble that would have gotten us in to I would have been more strict with her. They said they were taking her away to keep her _safe_ and now I learn that _he’s_ been letting that evil _freak_ near my baby girl, for all I know that was the plan all along! How can they claim to be the heroes when they’re so friendly with that _thing_?”

It cut back to the news anchors who were all shaking their heads in disappointment. “A spokesperson for the New York’s OCFS said that they were going to be reviewing case and there are even those who believe Mr Stark should be arrested on child endangerment charges-”

Steve shuts the TV show off, shaking with anger.

“What the _fuck_ ,” Tony breathes, it’s all happening too fast for him to process he turns to Pepper, panic rising like bile in his throat. “Where’s Ally?”

“Downstairs. With Bruce.”

“They’re not taking her from me.” He barely recognises his own voice, it’s strangled and shaking.

Steve puts a hand on his shoulder, “We won’t let them.”

Tony knows he should say something, thank Steve, start working out what the hell they’re going to do but at that moment Agent Hill, Natasha and Clint burst through the doors and the video phone start’s ringing and all hell breaks loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should be up pretty soon :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Daddy, if they take me away from you do I have to go back to live with mom?” her voice is so soft it’s barely a whisper and she’s clutching her stuffed t-rex, hair hanging down in her face. She looks like the scared little girl he met a year ago. When she finally meets his gaze her bottom lip is trembling. 
> 
>  
> 
> Wherein Tony's life continues on it's downward spiral and he's having to face up to the possibility that he's about to lose everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a day late, I tried to post it last night but Ao3 wouldn't load!
> 
> Next chapter will be longer coming since I'm not entirely sure how it's going to pan out plus I want to focus on some of my original fics (so I don't have to find a real job) but yeah, enjoy and thanks for the feedback as always :)
> 
> Again, un-beta'd so sorry for any mistakes :)
> 
>  
> 
> Alsooooo because this may be slow coming I'm doing the clever thing and starting another Frostiron fic (because I have issues) it will be angsty. Oh, issues.

“Stark, have you-” Hill begins.

Tony cuts her off, “We’ve seen it, Hill now would you mind explaining how the hell they got all that?” Tony’s no stranger to bad press (he used to make weapons of _mass destruction_ , for god sake) but SHIELD are meant to be protecting them from shit like this. They’re meant to be deleting compromising images and erasing dirty details in their back story; the last thing they need is someone digging through their pasts. When he first got custody of Alaya sure, there were some news stories, he did an interview or two but thus far he’s tried to shield her from the press because he knows from experience how weird it is to grow up on camera.

Hill ducks her head, “We honestly don’t know. Our software was hacked in to and destroyed, we didn’t get it up and running again until it was too late. We’ve been trying to track the source of the images, no luck so far.”

“We’ll find who did this, Tony,” Clint says, his eyes hard. “I swear we will.”

The damn video phone is still ringing and Tony pushes past them; he doesn’t have time for this, his worlds pretty much ending. “We don’t need to find who did it,” he calls over his shoulder. “We already know it was him.” 

Even as he says it his heart clenches and a bitter taste fills his mouth. 

He finds Ally sitting on a work bench holding a rubbish bag for Bruce. She smiles when he comes in, a slight tugging of the lips that she tries to hide with a toss of her head, “Hey, daddy.”

Before he’s realised it he’s already half way across the room and enveloping Ally in a tight hug, rubbish bag squashed between them. She stiffens and wriggles and Bruce is frowning. “Daddy,” she says, voice slightly muffled, “I’m trying to help Bruce!”

“Sorry, Ally.” His voice is shaking and Ally frowns at him but doesn’t ask. When he releases her she jumps off the work bench and bounces over to Bruce to continue picking through the wreckage of Bruce’s beloved lab. He can understand Loki attacking him, attacking the other Avengers but he can’t understand how Loki or _anyone_ could do this to Ally.

He closes his eyes. This time last year Ally wasn’t even a ghost in his mind; he hadn’t thought about her for years and now he was falling apart at the thought of losing her. When he opens his eyes Bruce is beside him.

“What’s happening, Tony?”

Ally’s playing with some old unbroken test tubes, fitting them on her fingers and laughing softly to herself. “They know about me and Loki, Bruce. They want to take her from me.”

Bruce’s eyes widen, “How?”

Tony’s voice doesn’t shake this time.”Loki.”

“Tony,” Bruce says his voice soft. “Tony, he wouldn’t-”

“Who else could do it, Bruce?” Tony snaps and Bruce opens his mouth to argue but Ally’s watching them closely now so he stays silent.

“We won’t let them take her,” Bruce says quietly.

Tony nods and turns to Ally smiling brightly, “So let’s get this all tidied up and then how does pizza and films sound, Ally?” Ally grins and nods eagerly and Bruce shoots Tony one last worried look before he gets back to tidying up. 

They’re just finishing up when Pepper comes in and beckons Tony out in to the hall. “OCFS have been on the phone all morning and so have the press. There are protestors outside of every Stark building in America and we’ve lost 25% of our investors.” She says this all without faltering, chin held up high. _God,_ he loves her sometimes.

“What am I supposed to do, Pep?”

“I have no idea but hiding in a destroyed lab is not going to make this go away, Tony. You need to issue a statement.”

Tony knows it’s pointless, the public have probably already labelled him a child abuser, there’s probably thousands of online accounts of how he and Loki are secretly in cahoots to take over the world with poor Ally as their unsuspecting victim. Whatever he says now won’t make the slightest bit of difference. And honestly he doesn’t care what they think, he never has, but this time his little girl is at stake. He sighs resignedly, “First thing tomorrow, Pepper.” He says.

She nods, “What have you told Ally?”

“Just said it was a bad guy.”

Pepper sighs. “She’ll figure it out eventually, Tony. She’s a smart kid.”

Tony glances back to the lab. Bruce is explaining genetics or something to her. She’s so damn _smart_ it scares him. “I know,” he says quietly.

The rest of the day passes by in a blur. Thor hasn’t returned from storming out earlier, Pepper keeps texting him updates about all the investors that are pulling out of their company, they fix Bruce’s lab up some but all his research is ruined, Clint and Tasha are off investigating and Steve’s wandering through them all. Tony should be rebuilding his suit, he’s unscrambled JARVIS but he still needs to make some repairs. But he doesn’t want to think about any of that so he’s curled up with Ally on the couch watching _Walking with Dinosaurs_ ; she’s almost silent as they watch and she’s balled one of her fists in his shirt. She knows something’s wrong and Tony’s dreading having to tell her what’s really going on. 

It happens that evening.

Bruce leans in to the room just as the final episode is finishing up and Tony’s almost lost himself in the Prehistoric world. “Tony, we need you.” he says quietly.

Tony yawns and stretches, half annoyed that Bruce is trying to take him away from Ally but then he catches sight of Bruce’s expression. He stands up ready to follow but Ally tugs at his shirt. “Daddy-” she begins.

He doesn’t really want to leave her on her own and for a moment he considers calling Pepper back from the office but they’ll only be downstairs right? It won’t take that long surely. He bends down and pulls her into his arms, ignoring her whine of protest, “Go upstairs and start getting ready for bed, okay? I’ll be up soon.”

When he draws back she’s frowning at him but she nods and scampers off.

“What’s happened now?” he asks as they walk.

Bruce visibly shudders. “It’s not good Tony.”

He walks in to their impromptu meeting room and is greeted with a sea of emotions. Steve’s sitting straight-backed, arms crossed and if possible he looks angrier than he did that morning, Thor’s at the opposite end of the table, glaring at him. Natasha and Clint sit between them, Tasha’s expression is unreadable as always and Clint? Well, Clint’s sort of slumped over the table, face hidden. Tony glances at the wall of TV and computer screens behind the table and sees why.

 _Should Tony Stark be arrested for child endangerment?_ one asks.

 _Clint Barton’s background revealed_ , says another.

 _Avenger, Black Widow’s past as Soviet spy_.

Another is playing Bruce’s rampage in Harlem, the caption reads _how safe are we with this monster on the loose?_

But the one in the centre is paused, _breaking news_ , it screams.

Director Fury turns as Tony and Bruce enter the room and sit down. “Now that you’re all here,” he snaps, glaring at Tony. “We need to decide what we’re going to do about this shitstorm heading our way.”   
“No offence, Director,” Tony says (even though he knows he shouldn’t). “But I think this ‘shitstorm’ is already upon us.”

Fury honest to God looks like he wants to tear Tony’s head off. “No offence, _Stark_ but I’m talking about more important things than your little legal troubles.” He turns back to the screen and plays the centre video.

“Earlier today we began to question those that keep us safe after photos emerged showing villain, Loki fraternizing with the group called the Avengers but now we mourn the loss of one of the world’s best loved groups,” the reporter says, glassy eyed. The picture cuts to a panning shot of what had once been the Fantastic Four’s base, now no more than a smoking wreck.

“At around 7pm this evening a huge explosion destroyed the building that was once the home of the Fantastic Four and just minutes ago it was confirmed that four bodies have been recovered thought to be those of Reid Richards, Johnny and Susan Storm and Ben-” Fury stopped the video and turned back to them.

Tony didn’t know the Four that well, he liked Johnny well enough, Reid and Ben were a bit too Steve-ish for his taste and Susan had slapped once when he’d made a subtle pass at her but still. To think that they were gone _hurt_.

“Who did this?” Steve’s fists are balled so tightly his knuckles have gone white.

“We’ve looked at the wreckage and all signs point to Loki,” Hill says quietly from her corner. “But there were weapons...or the remains of weapons that suggest the Chitauri were involved as well.”

Thor stands up, “My brother would not-”

“Oh, _come on_ , Thor,” Steve snaps. “Who else could it be? We’ve taken every other villain who could do this in to custody!”

Thor holds out his hand, ready for Mjǫlnir, to come flying through the walls, even in the midst of all this Tony finds himself despairing at the thought of Thor’s stupid hammer tearing through everything. “My brother would not do this, he was happy,” Thor’s saying, “You do not know him.”

Steve is already in a fighting stance, Fury’s yelling at them both to stop it, Bruce’s heart rate monitor is beginning to beep and all Tony can think of is when they first met _we’re not a team, we’re a time bomb._ Natasha stands up and slams her fist on the table, “ _Stop!_ ” she demands.

Tony stands up. _Loki killed the Four, Loki’s destroying his team, they want to take Ally away from him, send her back to that abusive and bitch, he’s suit-less, his company is falling apart. **Loki’s doing this**_.

“I need to go put my kid to bed,” he mutters. That shuts them up.

Ally’s already in her pyjamas (dinosaur patterned of course) and curled up in bed with Rex when Tony gets up stairs. He tries his best to smile but it probably comes out more as a pained grimace. “Hey, kiddo.” He says.

She smiles weakly as he sits down on the edge of her bed. “Something wrong, Ally?” he asks. Rex jumps of the bed and curls up in the terrarium they’d bought for him and Ally turns to watch him.

“Daddy, if they take me away from you do I have to go back to live with mom?” her voice is so soft it’s barely a whisper and she’s clutching her stuffed t-rex, hair hanging down in her face. She looks like the scared little girl he met a year ago. When she finally meets his gaze her bottom lip is trembling. 

Tony takes her hands and presses their foreheads together. “Ally, no one is taking you away. I won’t let them. _We_ won’t let them.”

“Promise?”

It hurts that she has to ask that and Tony pulls her closer. 

“Promise.” 

She leans in to him and buries her face in his side. Tony’s trying not to notice the empty space at the other end of the bed and he’s pretty sure Ally’s trying not to as well. “Daddy, do you really think that Loki did this?” she asks quietly.

He pulls away slightly and she’s looking up at him, eyes wide and blue. “Who told you?” he splutters.

She frowns, “You do, don’t you, I’m not stupid, Dad,” she shakes her head. “Loki wouldn’t do this to us. He’s family, he loves us.”

“Ally, listen-”

“No, daddy, you listen. You’ve got to trust him.” she takes his hand in hers, “Please, trust him.”

Tony swallows. He wants to. He wants to believe that Loki’s doing this for a reason but what reason could there be? The security camera footage wasn’t faked, that much was obvious and the Chitauri... There was no one else that could be doing this and Tony can’t afford to fall apart. He’s Tony Stark; he’s come back from worse than this. 

“Okay,” he says, “Okay, Ally.”

She nods and lies back and Tony tucks her in and kisses her gently on the forehead. Just as he’s closing the door she says, “I know you’re lying.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They think they've broken him.
> 
> It's rather funny, really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this so late and so short (and demented) :(
> 
> I'm going to be without internet for god knows how long but i'm working on the next chapter so I'll post it as soon as the nets back up and running! (And I'll make sure it's extra long to make up for my lateness and poor writing)
> 
> Thank you so much for all the feedback, it's really awesome, I never expected this fic series to be so popular!

_Loki’s cell is dark and cold._

_He’s not sure how big it is, he’s been chained to the floor for however long he’s been here (apart from when they send him out). (He’s not sure how long it’s been, it could have been years but the bump where is stomach used to be says it hasn’t) The child is strong, (kicks like Sleipnir, grows faster than Jor or Fenrir) **their** child, his and Stark’s (his and Tony’s). _

_He curls around it protectively._

_No one’s taking this one from him._

_Not the Chitauri. Not the Allfather. **No one.**_

_So he does what they say._

_He hides his stomach with a glamour and destroys Tony’s life, Ally’s life. He wrecks the Avenger’s Mansion (he’s thankful no one wakes up), he hacks in to SHIELD and sends everything he can find to newspaper’s, websites. He kills the Four._

_He’s killed before on Asgard and on Earth but not like that. It wasn’t warfare; it was slaughter. The Chitauri outnumbered them, they made Loki do the killing though. He saw the light go out of each of their eyes. There was a time when all he wanted was that. Death and destruction._

_Maybe he deserves this._

_He probably does._

_He tried to destroy Jotunheim, he tried to destroy Midgard, he let his children get torn away and destroyed._

_He remembers every person, every being, every life he took. They were nothing to him, **nothing** , but he remembers because he knows what it feels like to be nothing; to be a monster, to be an empty shell, to be weak and terrified and begging for it all to **stop, please**. He remembers his children being torn away, remembers their cries, he’d pleaded for them, begged Odin to leave them be but even Thor had trembled at the sight of Hel’s rotting skin and Fenrir’s teeth. _

_He used to tell himself he’d done all he could but he hadn’t._

_He let his children go because he so **desperately** wanted his ‘father’s’ love (he thinks sometimes that it is that that broke him, that that made him little more than a pathetic being who wove lies and manipulated people. It’s why he let those Jotun’s in on Thor’s special day. It’s why this whole thing started) _

_And now he’s tied up in some dark, cold cell in some lonely corner of the universe._

_If it was just him, just his life at stake he’d refuse, take their punishment, it’s all probably less than he deserves. But it’s never just been his life at stake. There’s always been his children, always been Thor, even in his darkest hours there’d been the little child in him begging to be allowed to run home and hide behind his brother’s cloak until everyone left him alone. **Sentiment**. _

_And now there’s Tony Stark, idiotic, infuriating, genius, Tony Stark and his wonderful, mad daughter and Loki had tricked himself in to thinking that he’d be happy. That they’d be safe with him._

_He should have left a long time ago but he didn’t so now Loki’s lost everything._

_But he’s not losing this child._

_He doesn’t trust the Chitauri but he doesn’t have a choice. If he does what they say they don’t hurt him, don’t hurt the child._

_So he’ll do what they say._

_And when his son is born he’ll destroy them all to protect him._

_The door to the cell creaks open._

_“It’s time frost giant,” the Chitauri rumbles. “Time to go home and bring back what you promised us.”_

_Loki waits until the Chitauri comes across the cell towards him (17 steps from the door) and yanks him upright. He follows meekly, silently._

_They think they’ve broken him._

_It’s rather funny, really._


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These last few days have taught him one thing: he needs to get Ally out of here, he needs to get Ally safe.
> 
> This is going to hurt like hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long!
> 
> Now, this chapters a little different, it takes place about a week after the last Tony-chapter and honestly it was written last minute because I couldn't get anything else to work without this happening.
> 
> Thanks a bunch for the feedback guys and hopefully the next chapter should be up soon :)

Tony’s standing on top of Stark Tower (technically it’s Avengers Tower now but in Tony’s own mind it’s always gonna be _his_ because all the other Avengers did was wreck it and yeah, he’s still got time to be vain even when his world’s collapsing because fuck you, he’s Tony Stark.) They’ve moved from the mansion because the tower is better protected and frankly they need it. There’s a small army of protestors down below and Tony’s honestly never seen so many (and he’s been the merchant of _death_.) 

These last few days have taught him one thing: he needs to get Ally out of here; he needs to get Ally safe.

“Tony, what are you going to do?” it’s asked quietly and Tony turns to find Bruce hovering behind him. He’s wringing his hands, his heart rate monitor has been beating erratically all day and they’ve been playing videos of his rampage in Harlem over and over. Bruce looks like he’s crawling out of his skin and Tony hates it. Of all of them Bruce deserves this least.

Tony has no idea what he’s going to do. His business stocks are plummeting, his teams collapsing and they want to take his kid away, oh, and there’s the whole fact that his ex-boyfriend (which still sounds ridiculous, the boyfriend part not the ex part) is causing all this. 

Oh and there’s also the whole Chitauri invasion thing. 

They’d been called in to Shield’s head quarters a little after their move. Asgard had leant them several pieces of technology to monitor their outer atmospheres because apparently there were hordes of angry aliens out there waiting to destroy them (and that snazzy British Doctor with bow ties and a Police Box wasn’t actually real, who knew?) They’d picked up Chitauri transmissions that suggested they were pretty annoyed with Tony for sending a nuke in to the middle of their war ships and were coming back in full force (yep, _full force_ like their last attack wasn’t bad enough) Thor’s gone off to Asgard to gather support to help defend Earth (Tony’s not sure why a race of intergalactic super beings would _want_ to defend a race of mindless, petty, -puny was it- humans but he’s not complaining.)

Short of turning back time there’s not much he _can_ do. 

If it was just him it’d be easy but it’s not just him and that’s why he hasn’t just hightailed it to some obscure country with no extradition and partied on a beach until this all blew over. He still has the old arc reactor on his desk, _proof that Tony Stark has a heart_ , it’s name is Ally, and Pepper, and Bruce and hell, the other Avengers too.

There’s this idea he’s been toying with; it’d be dangerous and stupid but it’s the only thing he can think of. It’s a last resort thing though.

“No idea,” he says honestly and Bruce nods, one hand tugging at his shirt nervously. “You thinking of running?” he asks quietly.

Bruce looks startled but he swallows and smiles nervously, “Maybe.”

Tony’s about to answer Bruce with a smirk and ridiculous plan but his phone buzzes and JARVIS says, “Ms Potts for you, sir.”

“Put her on speaker,” he says, glancing at Bruce.

Pepper sighs. “Tony, I don’t know how to tell you this but...”

“You’re in love with me again? Because don’t beat yourself up about it, Pep. Everyone is.” he says it with an easy grin and Bruce smiles weakly back, but it sounds hollow and wrong even to his own ears.

“They’ve issued an arrest warrant for you, Tony. You haven’t answered their calls about Ally and they’re going to take her Tony, she’s been made a ward of the state...” she pauses and Tony knows she’s crying. “Tony, what are you going to do?”

Tony takes a deep breath he spent the better part of this week panicking and burying himself in loud music and rebuilding his suits, he’s sure not letting himself panic anymore. “Pepper, I need you to get over here now, can you do that?” 

There’s some snuffling and then she says, “Yes. Yeah, okay, I’ll be right over.”

Bruce is watching him quizzically as Tony hangs up. “Later, Bruce, I’ve got to go and wake Ally up.” Bruce opens his mouth to ask why but Tony’s already out of the room.

When he gets to her door he pauses because he swears he can hear her talking to someone (he’s quite happy that he doesn’t have to wake her up because honestly she’s grumpier then Clint) He opens the door and the rooms empty, just her and Rex. “Who were you talking to Ally?” 

“Just Rex,” she says quietly. She hasn’t smiled in days, she’s closing down again and there’s nothing he can do about it. He’d be pretty freaked if he was her.

Tony swallows and does his best to smile warmly. “I need you to come talk to me and Pepper and Bruce, okay?”

She surveys him for a few minutes and then nods silently, clambering out of bed and slipping her triceratops slippers on. He wonders, not for the first time, if his dad ever watched him like this, ever felt himself tearing in two because all he wants it to protect her and make her smile again (and seriously sometimes he has to stop and marvel at how _this_ has become his life.) She shuffles quietly after him and when he puts his hand on her shoulder she doesn’t shrug it off.

Bruce is definitely not to keen on Tony’s plan, neither is Pepper, or Ally (Tony’s used to this by now) but it’s the only plan he’s got. 

“We can’t just _leave_ , Tony!” Pepper hisses. “I have a husband,” her lip quivers. “And we’ll get caught Tony, it’s kidnapping.”

“She’s right Tony, what if we get caught? What if I can’t protect her? What if you need me _here_? We’re about to be attacked by a Trickster God and an army that we barely defeated last time with a _nuke_.” Bruce’s heart rate monitor has a panic attack and he takes a steadying breath.

“You avoided them before, Bruce for _years._ ” Tony says quietly.

“And they found me!” 

“ _SHIELD_ found you, no one else even got close, ask Fury.” 

“But Tony-”

“Look, I could spend ages debating with you Bruce and believe me; you’d do it because if I can convince Pepper to dress as pirate for a day for kicks I can definitely convince you to do this, but we don’t have ages because tomorrow they’re going _take_ her.” He hears a soft intake of breath from behind him where Ally’s sat on the couch. “And I need to be _here_ because this is all my fault and you two are the only people I trust enough to do this and I know you love her as much as I do. There’s no one else I can trust do this, guys.”

Ally’s behind him now, leaning against him. “She needs to get away from here; I’m not sending her back to those _monsters_ and if the Chitauri come you can bet they’ll come here first. She needs to be safe.”

He’d go with her, of course he would, there’s nothing he’d like more than to just grab her and vanish. The trouble is this whole catastrophe _is_ his fault. He was the one who trusted Loki, who let him in to their lives; he’s going to be the one who ends this. (There’s also the fact that Tony is hopelessly dependant on technology and one of the downfalls of being a genius is knowing exactly how many ways he can be tracked) Bruce hid from the most advanced government groups for years and Pepper’s been his best friend _forever_.

Bruce sighs and Tony knows he’s won him over, “What if you need the other guy?” he asks quietly.

Ally’s hand finds Tony’s. “She’ll need you more.”

Pepper purses her lips, she looks tired, god she looks tired. “If we did this, if we _could_ do this then how are we going to get out of here? The building is surrounded by protestors; there are probably police on their way over here right now.”

“And I’ve got three of SHIELD’s super fast jet thingies in the basement levels. It’ll work, Pep, I promise.” He turns to Bruce, “If I get you a jet can you get Ally somewhere safe by this time tomorrow?”

Bruce glances at Ally, his hands are shaking slightly. (Tony gets it, he’s read all about Bruce’s past, read all about Bruce’s father. If he’d had an upbringing like that he’d be nervous around kids too.) “Please, Bruce.”

“I’ll do everything you say,” Ally says softly. “I can run fast and I’m good at hiding and I won’t be scared, I promise.”

Tony is totally not swooning with pride right now. He lifts her up and cradles her close, “You’re the only one who can do this, Bruce.”

Bruce sighs. “Okay, Tony.”

******

Loki shouldn’t be here, he really shouldn’t.

He’s supposed to be in Asgard but he’s waiting, waiting for his brother to come back to Midgard, he’ll bring the Warriors Three, Loki’s sure of that. Odin’s fallen in to a deep Odinsleep so Asgard will be practically unguarded, the Infinity Gauntlet and the Tesseract while be all too easy to steal.

And then the Chitauri would have everything they needed to destroy Midgard and Asgard; at least that was their plan. Loki wasn’t going to let it get that far.

He watches Tony for a while, wearing a glamour of invisibility and their child kicks in his stomach. Loki wonders absently if their son will Tony’s eyes or smirk or mind, he wonders if they’ll ever get to raise him together. He wonders if he allowed himself to materialise here, now, if Tony would freak out and hurt him or if he’d listen to him, but Loki doesn’t think he while. Tony’s trust in him was as fragile as butterfly wing, he’d crushed it and he wasn’t likely to get it back and Loki understood, he knew what it felt like to believe everything you’d ever known was based on lies.

He sighs and turns away as Bruce walks in, he already knows what Tony’s thinking, he wants to send Ally away and Loki thinks it possibly the smartest thing Tony’s ever thought of. 

Ally’s asleep when Loki gets into her room (or at least he thinks she is) he brushes her dark hair back from her forehead and gets ready to leave (it’s a long journey to Asgard) but she says, “Loki, I know you’re there.”

*****

Tony puts his daughter on a SHIELD jet with a scientist with mind blowing anger management issues and a C.E.O who’s idea of camping involves a high-tech campervan with a hot tub and central heating (or something like that). They’re his best friends and he’s never trusted anyone more than he trusts these two; he’s trying to be confident about this but he’s never been more terrified. Bruce and Pepper are grimfaced and determined and Ally clings to his neck and says, “I’ll be okay, Daddy. You shouldn’t worry so much.”

Tony almost believes her.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Missed me, dear?” Tony asks dryly. Where the fuck have you been?
> 
> Loki licks his lips but doesn’t say anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry about the wait guys and double sorry for short update :'/ 
> 
> my laptop ended up getting a virus from a torrent my baby bro downloaded (which is why, children, pirating is bad) so i lost the 4000 word chapter I was finishing up for you guys :L so here's the first part rewritten (mostly).
> 
> As always thanks so much for your comments/kudos! and to Yiggrate who wished me luck in my test (which I passed. Yee, I am now allowed to drive automobiles ^_^ so watch out if you're in London because lol, i should not be allowed to drive)
> 
> Warnings for messy feelings and everyone being OOC. Sigh. Sorry guys.

_Stealing the Infinity Gauntlet is laughably easy._

_Thor had taken the Warriors Three with him to Midgard and sneaking in to Odin’s weapons fault was never difficult in the first place. He passes his moth-Frigga on the way, he’s invisible of course but she pauses and looks right at him as though she knows he’s there. He wants to reach out to her (she’d be so happy to be a grandmother again) he hasn’t been back to Asgard since his escape. She walks on and he shakes his head, **sentiment**._

_He pauses in front of the gauntlet._

_This was supposed to be the backup plan after the first invasion. He knew Thanos didn’t care about Midgard, they’d only attacked it to piss of Thor. **Let yourself be captured, Little God, go back home,** he’d said and Loki had obeyed because all he wanted was to destroy. _

_There’s this little part of him, this dark, broken part of him that wonders what life would be like if he took the gauntlet for himself. He could free his children and rule the galaxy and-_

_The baby kicks and that quiet voice in Loki’s head is muted._

_He wants nothing more than to destroy both the weapons, to throw them in to a black hole but he can’t because Thanos might find them by chance and-_

_He’s slipping and he can’t do this alone anymore, he takes the gauntlet and tesseract and vanishes._

00000

He appears in a flash and he’s exhausted.

Thor’s in his room and he doesn’t think twice about crossing the room and catching him before he falls. He should be calling the agents, the Warriors, someone, but he doesn’t because he knows this isn’t Loki switching sides. This is Loki trying to protect the people he loves. He drags him over to the bed.

“Brother?” he pretends not to notice the way Loki flinches slightly at the word.

“’Mm not your brother, you oaf,” Loki mumbles, eyes fluttering shut.

“I cannot protect you from this, Loki,” Thor says, eyeing his brother up. He seems relatively unharmed and he’s clutching the gauntlet that’s been in their father’s throne room for as long as Thor can remember. “Why do you have that?” he asks.

Loki slits his green eyes open. “I’m not going to attack you with it if that’s what you’re worried about,” he grumbles. 

Thor’s hurt. “I know you won’t,” and Loki looks momentarily dumbfounded before his usual calm mask slips back in to place. “Where have you been, brother? You-You did some terrible things. I need to understand why.”

“You know why,” Loki spits. “I need you to- need you to hide this somewhere.” He holds out the gauntlet and Thor takes it. “If it falls in to Thanos’ possession he’ll be unstoppable, Thor.”

Loki makes to stand up but he sways and Thor catches him, tries to push him back down. “Loki, you _must_ rest.”

“No, no, I’ve got to go-”

People might think Thor’s stupid but he’s been fighting wars long enough to know a diversion when he sees it. “You want the Chitauri to come after you again.”

“They won’t- they won’t attack in full force until they have the weapons. They’ll think I stole them. They might leave you and Ton- your little friends out of this.”

“Or they might use us as bait, Loki.” Thor says quietly and Loki swallows, paling slightly. “You could have come to me sooner.”

“They would have known,” he says quietly. “Thanos would have known.” 

“Loki, I don’t-” Thor begins but Loki groans quietly and puts a hand to his stomach in an all too familiar gesture. “You’re...?”

Loki’s eyes flash, “Yes. Wearing a glamour. I’d hoped he would be here by now so that you could...” his breath hitches and he closes his eyes, turning his head away from Thor. Thor’s heart breaks a little.

Thor sighs. “I’m not letting you leave, Loki.” He says quietly. “You need to tell me what the Chitauri are planning.”

To his surprise Loki doesn’t argue.

00000

It’s Steve who tells him. Leans around the door to his lab cautiously and says, “They’ve got him Tony. He’s in one of the cells upstairs, turned up in Thor’s room; apparently he’s told them everything though I don’t know how trustworthy what he says is.”

Tony looks up slowly; he’s been working on new suit designs all day, all night, ever since he sent Ally away with Bruce. He’s public enemy number one in New York right now, kidnapper, child abuser, you name it, he’s been called it. He’s told the team but he waited until Bruce signalled him that they were out of the country before doing so and honestly he was surprised (especially by Natasha snapping that he should have sent her with them which in hindsight would have been perfect) Fury had been less than impressed but had promised to do his best to help them stay hidden (only after Tony threatened to leave with them).

He sets his jaw and stands up, “I want to talk to him.”

Steve doesn’t argue (which is great because Tony’s pretty sure he would have decked him if he had.) Steve walks with him up to the floor SHIELD’s turned in to their temporary prison and Tony should be feeling _something_ but he’s not. He’s just numb.

The SHIELD agents guarding the door move away as they approach and Steve touches his shoulder lightly. “You okay?”

“Just peachy,” Tony deadpans. 

When he enters the small room Loki looks up and something flashes across his green eyes that Tony might have mistaken for joy if he hadn’t just destroyed Tony’s life completely. Loki’s chained by the wrists to the centre of the floor and there’s a pane of no doubt bullet proof glass separating them and he looks nervous, unsure of himself. There’s a flicker of something and for a moment Tony’s sure Loki’s outlines blur a little but he blinks and Loki’s solid again.

“Missed me, dear?” Tony asks dryly. _Where the fuck have you been?_

Loki licks his lips but doesn’t say anything. 

Tony snorts, “Don’t I get a hello? No ‘honey, I’m home’, hm? No apologetic peck on the cheek and a bullshit story about how awful traffic was? Aren’t you supposed to have a _silver tongue_ Loki?” He’s trying so hard to keep his voice steady but the man who’s torn apart his life-his family, is sitting barely a foot away and all Tony can see is Ally’s face when she realised Loki was gone. 

“Hello, Tony.” Loki says quietly.

Tony waits for an apology when there isn’t one he chuckles, high, unnaturally. “Is that it?” His voice trembles and Loki looks up slowly. 

“That’s it. _Hello, Tony._ You’re gone for _months_ without one word, without a fucking _whisper_ and you waltz back into Thor’s room after completely fucking up _everything._ What happened? Did you finally realise you were _nothing_ but a pathetic little _puppet_ to the Chitauri because I get that now, you only do things to benefit _you_. How long have you been planning this, huh? How long ago did you decide to completely ruin _me._ Do you even know what you’ve done? _Do you?_ Can your Godlike brain comprehend the pain you’ve put Ally through?”

At that Loki’s eyes narrow a little and Tony’s glad because right now he wants to tear Loki _apart_.

“She closed down again you know? She was _miserable_ and now they want to send her back to her fucking abusive mother and it’s _all your fault_. I get leaving me, I really do, but you fucking broke her heart and I swear to God if this glass wasn’t here I’d be tearing you limb from limb you pathetic little-”

“Is she somewhere safe?” Loki asks suddenly throwing Tony off.

He blinks. Loki looks genuinely concerned. “I-yes. She’s-She’s safe.” Tony says dumbly. Loki closes his eyes in what looks strangely like relief and Tony swallows, expecting Loki to say something, _anything_ but he doesn’t. Tony regards him for a few moments. Loki Laufeyson is one of the few people that Tony can’t read _at all_ and he thinks that’s why he finds him so fascinating.

“Where did you go?” he asks quietly.

Loki looks up briefly before looking away.

Tony sighs, _stay calm, Stark_ his inner Loki whispers. “Why did you go?” his voice wavers more than he’d intended. _Why did you leave me? Why did you leave us?_

Loki bites his lip, “I _had_ to.” He says quietly.

“Why?”

Loki looks away again. “You wouldn’t- I just had to, Tony.”   
“You had to,” Tony repeats, its such a cliché lie that Tony almost laughs. “Did you also have to murder the Fantastic Four? And did you have to destroy the mansion? And leak those pictures? And tell everyone about Bruce’s and Clint’s and Tasha’s pasts? And of course, you _had_ to ruin Ally’s life, am I right? Because you just _had_ to.”

He doesn’t expect Loki to answer but the God bites his lip, eyes downcast.

“Did you love me? Ever?” He doesn’t mean to ask it. It just slips out and Loki gazes up at him. Tony’s always loved the way Loki can convey thousands of different emotions with just his eyes. _Hurtconfusionheartbreak._

“ _What_?” 

“Did you love me or not?”

Loki’s eyes are wide and Tony’s not sure if there are tears in those green depths or if he’s just imagining them (just wishing they’re there). “Come on lie to me and tell me you did. Let me feel like the piece of shit I am, did you love me or not?!" 

Loki’s eyes flutter shut.

“ANSWER ME.”

“Of course I do.” Loki says softly, head still bent. He’s sincere and in the end that’s probably what breaks Tony because _how can you do this to someone you say you love?_

“Then _why?_ ”

Loki looks up at him silently, eyes hard and defiant ( _like Ally when she’s being stubborn_ )

Tony turns to leave because if he doesn’t he’s pretty sure he’ll find a way to smash through that glass and tear Loki apart. As he reaches the door Loki speaks.

“Everything I did was for you.”

Tony pauses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of Tony's dialogue in this is taken from the RDJ film "A Guide to Recognising your Saints" which you should all go watch.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's late, Ao3 wouldn't load yesterday.
> 
> Next one won't be for a while since I'm still debating what's going to happen when and wheeereeeeeee~
> 
> Think this'll be about two more chapters SO WE'RE ALMOST TO THE END GUYS
> 
> As always you've been awesome and thank you for being patient :)
> 
> Enjoy! *evil lulz*

“Everything I did, I did for you.”

Tony pauses and turns. “What do you mean?”

Loki bows his head again, “If I hadn’t...I knew the Chitauri were coming for me. If I had stayed they would have taken you or Ally. I had to leave.” 

“Bullshit,” Tony snaps. “You could have told me. You could have told _someone_.”

“He would have known,” Loki protests. “Thanos would have known...He’s in my head, Tony. I couldn’t...”

 _Bullshit_. “So what was the plan? Get yourself killed to ‘protect’ us? We thought you’d turned on us, you _killed_ people, Loki! What the fuck!? You could have told us, we could have tackled this _together_ because that’s what families do!”

Loki stiffens. “I didn’t-”

“I swear to God if you say you didn’t have a choice I will leave you in here for the rest of your life. _How could you do that, Loki?_ If you’d told us we could have helped. You could have been _killed_. We could have all been _arrested_. Ally could have been taken away from us, Loki, didn’t you _think_ about any of this?”

“Do you really think I would let that _happen_!?” Loki snaps, green eyes darkening. Tony pauses, frowning. Loki’s almost shaking with anger. “I _knew_ what this would do to you, I _knew_ the dangers of this and I _knew_ you wouldn’t let anything happen to her. I was looking out for her the whole time, Stark.” 

Tony surveys him for a few moments. He’s staring at up at him, eyes hard, jaw set, fist balled. His skin is paler than usual. “But _why_ didn’t you tell us? You could have been killed.”

Loki deflates, “You would have done the same.” He croaks.

Tony thinks about the nuclear missile. “I wouldn’t have killed people.” He says firmly.

“Not even if your children were at risk?”

Tony pauses. Loki said child _ren_. He narrows his eyes, maybe this is all just a trap, maybe this is part of Thanos’ (whoever he might be) plan. Maybe Loki’s talking about _his_ children, maybe Thanos threatened them. But then again, it must be kind of hard to threaten a giant wolf, the Midgard serpent and the guardian of the dead. This could all be a trick, the next phase of the plan, play the victim, turn on them, kill them all.

“How do I know this isn’t all part of your plan, Loki?”

There’s a one way mirror behind Tony, looking in to the cell. He thinks he hears something hard thump in to it and wonder if Thor’s going to kill him later for bullying his poor, defenceless baby brother but right now, he doesn’t care. Loki’s eyes are wider now, he looks likes Tony feels; exhausted and tearing himself apart. It’s a good performance but Loki is the God of lies after all.

“You come in here, get us to sympathise with you, kill us in our sleep? Let your little friends take over the world?” 

“Tony-”

Tony has perfected the art of closing off his emotions, he’s been using it since he was seventeen years old and Jarvis died. He tries to ignore the way Loki’s whine tugs at his heart. “But why Earth, Loki? Why this tiny little planet, huh? Is this all some elaborate scheme to get back at your big brother? Did Daddy love him better or something? Not get enough hugs as a kid so you decided to destroy a world?”

“No, I-”

“And what then, huh? You’ve destroyed humanity, killed us, or are you going to keep us around us a puppets, trophies? And what happens to Ally? Do you seriously think your alien buddies are going to listen to you once they take over the world? Is Asgard next? Revenge on daddy?”

“ _Tony!_ ” Loki’s sweating now, gritting his teeth, like he’s in pain.

The Merchant of Death in Tony grins and it feels horrible and wrong. “Touch a nerve, did I?”

Loki’s eyes are squeezed shut, he’s shaking. “Tony, _please._ ”

There’s a knock at the door and Steve shoves in, face grim. “Tony,” he says, giving Loki a look of disgust. “The Chitauri are coming. They’ll be here tomorrow.”

Tony casts one last look at the shivering heap on the floor of the cell and follows Steve out of the room without a word. “Keep him in there and don’t let anyone see him.” he barks to the guards as he passes. As soon as he leaves he finds himself thrown against the wall, pinned by an angry Norse God. 

“How _dare_ you question my brother’s honour!” Thor snarls.

Tony struggles but he knows it’s in vain, “Your _brother_ has killed hundreds of people and orchestrated an invasion that could very well destroy this planet and us with it,” he spits.

Thor’s expression twists in anger, “You do not know what you are talking about, Man of Iron.” He roars. “My brother may have done some bad things in the past but this is not one of them. I have never seen him care so much about anyone other than his children, I implore you, Tony Stark, change your mind, listen to what he has to say.” Thor says quietly, letting him drop to the floor. 

Tony glances at Steve who shrugs, “Your call, Tony.”

“We are about to be _invaded_ by a group that we barely defeated last time and they were just the front line. We barely fought them off with a _nuclear weapon_ and you want me to go and apologise to the guy who _brought_ them here?” 

Thor backs off, eyeing Tony darkly and Tony turns to Steve. “Let’s go.”

Steve nods, turns to the agents that have appeared, “Order an evac of every major city, get as much military support as we can to help with the evacuation. Put out the word that those who can’t get out to barricade themselves in basements, bomb shelters, subway systems anything underground. I want everyone safe before they get here, we’ll help as best we can.”

The agents nod and scurry off, Thor steps forward uneasily. “Thor, you and the other Asgardians help the military, Clint and Tasha are rallying support from Xavier’s and some of the other teams. Even got some villains on our side. Tony I need you to try and get in contact with Bruce, we’re gonna need him and then do what you can to help with evac as well. When we’re done we’ll--”

Steve is cut off by a gut wrenching scream.

Loki’s scream. 

Tony’s brain short-circuits because _what the hell?_ Thor’s moving before either of them have processed what just happened. “Open the door,” Thor demands and the guards look to Tony, blank faced. “OPEN THE DOOR AND LET ME SEE MY BROTHER.” 

Tony’s brain is being flooded with images of Loki writhing in pain, maybe Thanos really was in Loki’s head, maybe he’s being tortured. Maybe he’s been made in to a weapon and he’s about to explode. It’s so ridiculous he almost giggles. 

“Let him through,” Tony croaks and the guards step aside to let Thor barrel in to the room. 

“Tony?” Steve’s watching him closely. “You should be in there.” He says softly.

“No,” Tony mumbles, “No, I’ve gotta help get everyone out.”

“ _Tony_ ,” he says sternly, in his best army voice. Tony looks away and Steve sighs. “Keep in contact,” Steve says before turning presumably to suit up.

Loki’s groans of pain are getting louder and Tony can hear the low rumble of Thor’s voice. The guards have vanished and Tony’s feet seem to be moving of their own volition because he finds himself leaning against the cell door. Loki is curled on the floor, Thor has one hand of his hands on his shoulder.

When Loki sees him the little colour that remains in his face vanishes. “Get out,” he snarls, “ _Get out!_ ”

Tony’s eyes widen because he’s pretty sure Loki’s gained 500 pounds and Thor looks like he’s considering tearing Tony apart limb from limb, oh and hey, there’s still an alien invasion on the way and everyone might die.

“ _Please_ ,” Loki whimpers.

Tony leaves.

******

“Don’t tell him,” Loki whispers. “Not till this is all over. And don’t you dare let him do anything stupid.”

Despite it all Thor smiles.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so sorry it's been so long.
> 
> BUT THIS CHAPTER WAS CURSED I LOST IT FOUR TIMES! FOUR. And I wrote the majority of this with a high fever so if it makes no sense i'm triple sorry.
> 
> So it's awful and crappy and badly written and I'm sooooorrrry but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging since I'm away for the next two weeks. 
> 
> As always, thanks for all your feedback, you're awesome and you deserve a better author. SOB. I promise you a an extra long chapter with explanations and Loki pov when I get back.
> 
> Also. I have no idea what Thanos is actually like (ability-wise) so just roll with it? He's telekinetic in this. becausssseeeee.

The Chitauri hit them _hard_. Bruce and Clint are already down and Tony barely makes out Steve over the radio yelling, “Tony, get them out of there! _Get them out of there!_ ”

New York is a ghost town. The evacuation had most of the people fleeing; a few remained, taking shelter in the subway system, in basements, in old bomb shelters. Spider Dork (or whatever his name is, Tony’s pretty sure it’s not Spider Dork though) swings past and Xavier’s students are spread out amongst the wreckage. Doom and his Doombots are helping too, even Magneto’s Brotherhood have turned up and it’s kind of nice (once they got past the glaring UST between X and Mags _seriously_ ) Thor’s friends are jumping about and throwing axes and the like, but even so, they’re wildly out numbered.

Thor had taken Ally to Asgard before returning to fight with them. Ally was a whole world away, she was safe.

 _Ally’s safe,_ he repeats it like a mantra as he swoops through the devastated city. He scoops up Bruce (bleeding from the left leg, bleeding from the forehead) and then Clint (there’s two Chitauri warriors collapsed on top of him) and deposits them in the nearest subway station. The crowd of people in there (huddled together) watch wide eyed.

Tony thinks they know they’re losing.

They’ve tried firing missiles but they can’t risk a nuke because it’d destroy _everything._ This time there wasn’t a portal, they just _appeared_ descended out of the sky like every crappy alien invasion flick Tony’s ever seen.

They’re losing even though the big purple thing that Loki called Thanos doesn’t have his special glove thing. ( _Take out the leader,_ Steve had said. _Take him out and the rest will fall like dominos._ ) It’s true, Tony thinks. Thanos is orchestrating this whole thing standing on top of Stark Tower and grinning maniacally (in a way that gives Tony _chills_.

They’re losing because the Chitauri outnumber them. Because no matter how many ships they destroy more keep coming and they’re getting tired.

Tony takes out another of those whaley things and Thor swings his hammer wearily to take out a whole fleet of Chitauri with a huge bolt of lightning, he see’s Cap’s shield fly past them and take out another few soldiers. They’re not even making a dent in the Chitauri forces.

 _”This isn’t working!”_ Tony calls over the radio.

“ _I agree,”_ Thor growls.

“ _We need to take out Thanos_ ,” Steve repeats. _”He’s the one controlling them, I doubt they’d be so organised if he wasn’t here_.”

Tasha chimes in, breathing heavily. _”We can’t touch him, how are we supposed to take him out?”_

It’s true, they’ve tried, hell, they fired a fucking _missile_ at the smirking purple asshole but it hadn’t done anything. It was like the whole of Stark Tower had been covered in a force field (where Loki last was, Tony’s trying not to care). He hasn’t seen Loki since he was ordered out of the room- hasn’t found out what was happening, didn’t really want to. The only thing he knew for sure was that Loki had escaped. They’d come back to the Tower to rendezvous the evac was well under way and Thor had been standing there, grimly. 

He thinks that’s the worst part (well aside from the whole alien invasion thing) is that when he heard Loki screaming all he wanted to do was hold him and shush him and make him feel better, when he saw Thor standing there he was sure he was going to say that Loki was dead (or dying) and _ohgodwhatwashesupposedtodo_ (which made Tony feel all kinds of _wrong_ ) But no, all he’d said in a soft growl was that Loki had escaped (and Tony thought _good_ . Good because Tony doesn’t have to deal with him, good because Tony doesn’t have to watch SHIELD break him, good because Loki is good at hiding and Loki will hide somewhere safe and _be safe_.)

“ _There has to be some way in..._ ”

“ _We need a plan,_ ” Steve says and Tony scoffs.

“ _No, Cap, we need a fucking miracle._ ”

There’s a grunt of agreement from Thor and Tony swoops low over the tower, watching as Thanos grins up at him.

“ _You’re the genius, Stark_ ,” Tasha’s voice is faint over the static, alarm bells go off in Tony’s head but he doesn’t ask if she’s okay. They’re all going down anyway. “ _Figure something out._ ”

By now Tony has perfected the art of coming up with ingenious strategies mid-battle so he’s already thinking about the science of force fields (which SHIELD probably has a whole division for) as he takes down a whale thing. Everything is made of atoms so Thanos must have created his force field out of them and if people could break the sound barrier then Tony’s pretty sure he can find a way to break through Thanos’ barrier.

“Sir, calculations suggest that to penetrate the barrier surrounding Stark Tower you would have to be travelling at approximately 500 m/s. This would require a power boost of around 300%.” JARVIS chirps.* 

“300% huh?” Tony turns and flies down to hover by where Thor is pounding a Chitauri’s head in. The God looks up, blonde hair smattered with blood, eyes flashing. 

“Stark?” he growls.

“Hey, big guy, I need you to shoot me with lightning.”

Thor blinks (lifts his hammer and chucks in the direction of a whaley thing coming right at them) “What?”

“Just do it, blondie!” Tony snaps.

Thor stares blankly for a few more minutes before shrugging (catching his magic boomerang hammer) and raising it to the heavens. The bolt of lightning sends Tony flying and for a moment the suit sputters and dies. Then it hums in to life, brighter and more beautiful than before.

“Powered up by 300%, sir!” JARVIS says happily.

Tony wastes no time in taking off in the direction of his tower and speeding up until all he can hear is the roar of the wind and feels like his insides have been liquidated. He thinks he hears Steve over the radio screaming at him but he’s not sure (because if he does this then the world might be saved) 

He hits the force field hard enough to feel it shatter around him and he doesn’t slow down in time and hits the tower in an explosion of glass and twisted metal.

“I am fucking _awesome_ ,” he groans. He hears static from his radio and JARVIS informs him it’s been destroyed. _Fuck._ He rolls over and just about manages to stand up as JARVIS performs a damage check.

He’s just with it enough to duck the purple fist that swings at him.

“Ah, Tony Stark, you’re my little God’s favourite toy, yes?” Thanos rumbles.

Tony rolls and scans Thanos, looking for something (anything) that might be a weak spot that might be co-ordinating the Chitauri (he knows it’s a small chance but he’ll take it). 

“Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, philanthropist _actually_ ,” Tony growls, “Once known as the merchant of death.”

At this Thanos chuckles, “The merchant of death? That’s cute. Have you ever met Death, Stark? She’s quite beautiful, you know.” Thanos’ voice was a soft rumble and with a flick of his wrist he sent Tony flying.

“The gem in his headgear, sir. It’s emitting a strange frequency.”** JARVIS’ voice is cracking and broken, Tony’s not entirely sure how long his suit is going to last.

It takes Tony five minutes to realise that he’s not going to be able to destroy the gem without help and by that point his suit is barely functioning. Thanos throws him through yet another wall cackling, _come on,_ he thinks, _I just need one person to distract him, **please**._ But it’s no good because his radio’s out and there’s still an alien invasion going on out there and he can see the smoke and hear the explosions and the cries, he’s alone. 

“Your little God has left you, but don’t you think I won’t find him and retrieve what is mine,” Thanos says, looming over Tony. “Your friends are dying, your planet burns. You cannot win this.”

 _If I can just..._ Tony lifts his hand, with a twitch of his fingers Thanos pins his arm down.

“I’ll enjoy crushing you, little human and your world will follow.”***

Tony closes his eyes and all he sees is Ally’s face, he wonders if she’ll know when he dies, but the blow never comes. “I’ve heard of taunting the victim but really?” he murmurs before slitting his eyes open.  
Thanos has been thrown to the other side of the roof and standing over Tony is-

“Honey, I’m home.” Loki says with a grin, hands glowing green with magic.

Tony doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry so he does neither instead he says dazedly, “And what sort of time do you call this?”

There are a hundred things Tony wants to say-to ask, but this is definitely not the time so instead he says, “The gem, it’s co-ordinating the attack.” 

Loki nods in understanding and just as time to turn before Thanos has sent him sprawling backwards. 

“Ah, returned have we, Jotun? And I see you’ve lost a little something along the way,” Thanos’ smile is knowing and Tony frowns. “Does he know?” Thanos jerks his head towards Tony and Loki’s eyes narrow defiantly. “AH, he doesn’t, does he?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it went a bit Disney there at the end.
> 
> * This is possibly the worst idea ever written but FUCK YOU PHYSICS.
> 
> ** LALALALALALALALALAAAAAA~ This makes no sense and unimaginative!Kitten is unimaginative. Ah, well. 
> 
> ***If this was a movie he'd totally laugh evilly here.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first off I am so, so sorry this took so long and I'm doubly sorry that it's so short! D:
> 
> I've just lost all motivation for this story ;/ thank you so, so much for sticking with me for this long though! There will probably be 1/2 more chapters to tie everything together and then i'll be off to play with Tony and Loki in two new stories which will hopefully be better than this!
> 
> Unbeta'd and awful.
> 
> Once again, so, so sorry *hangs head*

Loki has lived for thousands of years. He’s fought wars (and caused wars), he’s borne children and watched them be banished (and be killed), he’s told so many lies there are times that he’s unsure of what the truth really _was_. He’s lost people, gained people, killed people and he’s not going to lie and say that Tony Stark is the first person he’s ever loved.

He loves his children. 

He loves his brother.

He loves his mother.

He’s loved people before but Tony is different and Loki’s not sure why. So when Thanos asks if Tony knows and Tony turns to him (momentarily, Tony’s not an idiot, he knows better than to pause mid-battle) and there’s a whirlwind of emotion in his brown eyes, Loki finds himself speechless. _Confusion, doubt, fear._

“Tell me what?” Tony’s voice is hesitant and Loki gets it, Tony’s still not sure if Loki’s working for Thanos or not, but it still _hurts_. 

And Loki’s still speechless.

“I...”

He supposes that yes, he could have told Tony and maybe it would have saved some trouble. But in all likelihood it would have just made things worse. Tony would never had let him leave, they would all have been in danger, Tony, their baby, Ally. 

“It never ceases to amaze me how stupid love can make us,” Thanos rumbles. “Well, what you believe is love. Tell me, Tony Stark, do you truly believe you own the Silvertongue’s heart?”

Tony’s hand is raised, ready to shoot a pulse bolt at Thanos. There’s a flicker of doubt in Tony’s eyes as he glances again at Loki and Loki wants to tear at Thanos but he can’t because Thanos has him frozen in place.

“You know of the little God’s nickname, I trust? Loki Liesmith. He has made weaving false stories his defining feature, Tony Stark. Do you believe that _you_ a mere mortal could change that? Everything about the creature before you is a lie, he doesn’t love you, he simply enjoys the protection you offer him; you’re just a toy, Stark. An amusement for him.” Thanos laughs. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

Tony lets the mask slide back down. 

Loki wants to scream but whatever sorcery Thanos has him under has frozen his voice as well.

Then Thanos turns to Loki, “So tell me, little God, did you intend to bear his child? And where oh where have you hidden it?”

(Loki’s cunning and Loki’s clever and above all he loves his children. There is no way he is letting Thanos get his hands on this one. He has hidden their son well.)

Loki can’t see Tony’s face but he can imagine the shock, the confusion on the other man’s face. Tony turns to him (hand still raised to Thanos), “What?”

Loki wants to answer but he doesn’t have time because Tony shoots a bolt directly at Thanos’ gem. It shatters, brightly coloured fragments shooting everywhere and Thanos _howls_.

“Rule number one of good villainy, don’t pause to monologue without first making sure _both_ your opponents are definitely not going to attack you mid-soliloquy,” Tony says and Loki can hear the smirk in his voice. “Or better yet, just avoid the whole ‘monologue-ing’ thing all together. It’s annoying.” 

Thanos’ grip on Loki is released and he laughs. Laughs and laughs and laughs, because this can finally be over.


End file.
